Chlorine in the gene pool

Posted by ESC on June 14, 2010 at 00:04

Helen, the main character/heroine in the Dead-End Job Mystery series, is on the lam to avoid paying alimony to her deadbeat ex-husband. In "Dying to Call You," she is a telemarketer and thinks, "The computers were calling Kentucky and Tennessee in areas where the gene pool needed some chlorine." I say that is an ethnic slur. Author Elaine Viets says it is not. What say you? More detail: Ms. Viets has worked as a telemarketer and says Kentucky and Tennessee people were the rudest. But she didn't talk about our lack of telephone manners in the book - she made a comment regarding our genetic makeup.

• Chlorine in the gene pool Baceseras 14/June/10
  • Chlorine in the gene pool ESC 15/June/10